NGA Report Indicates Collaboration is Key for Readying the Workforce for a Global Economy

National Governors Association - A new report released today by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center), A Sharper Focus on Technical Workers: How to Educate and Train for a Global Economy, provides a model for how states can work collaboratively with industry, community colleges and each other to provide opportunities for workers to build their skills and ensure America's future economic security and prosperity. The report outlines actions governors can take to shape a new future for job training in a way that will nurture the largest and fastest-growing industries, including:

• Champion the importance of technical education and technical work to economic competitiveness and worker prosperity;
• Focus first on the industrial sectors with the greatest economic impact;
• Use state spending to encourage community colleges to engage in collaboration and innovation;
• Develop multi-state partnerships focused on providing consistent, high-quality, industry-valued training; and
• Require comprehensive outcome data to assess students' skills and credentials gained, hold educational institutions accountable and inform policymakers.

A Sharper Focus on Technical Workers: How to Educate and Train for a Global Economy is based on lessons learned from the Automotive Manufacturing Technical Education Collaborative (AMTEC) – a partnership of 30 community colleges and 34 auto-related plants in 12 states that worked to identify and implement wide-ranging improvements in technical education for workers in advanced automotive manufacturing environments.